More that 700 Church members worked four straight days to help clean up
the devastating effects of a hurricane that caused an estimated $1.8
billion damage to the Gulf Coast the first week of October.

With winds blowing up to 140 mile per hours, Hurricane Opal raged
through Mexico, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South
Carolina. The hurricane, called one of the strongest to ever hit the United
States, is the second to hit this fall. Hurricane Erin struck some of the
same area Aug. 3.Three people in the United States and seven in Mexico were
killed as a result of the most recent disaster. All Church members and
missionaries are reported safe. More than 1 million U.S. residents also
lost power in the storm.

The needs of Church members in Mexico - where one member family lost
their home - have been met by local Church leaders.

In the United States, the Pensacola Florida Stake Center sustained
minor water damage and another Florida meetinghouse was seriously damaged
by a fallen tree that hit the roof. During the storm, more than 600 members
took refuge in meetinghouses in Florida, where Hurricane Opal's effects
were the most devastating.

President Kenneth J. Holbert of the Pensacola Florida Stake is
coordinating the relief effort for his region, where the Resource Center of
the Church Welfare Services in Atlanta, Ga., sent its "Spearhead Unit,"
including canned food and water, to assist in relief efforts.

President Holbert called this year a "historically significant season"
because two hurricanes have hit practically the same area within months of
each other.

"We had some members who had near total destruction of all their
property," Pres. Holbert said. "The beach front homes and condos were just
gutted, . . . windows and doors were blown out. Some of the sides of the
buildings were ripped off by the wind."

Pres. Holbert said Church members removed a motor boat from the living
room of one home and placed it on the front lawn, near a sail boat. Neither
boat belonged to the homeowner. "We have pieces of debris that are a
half-a-mile away from where they began," he explained.

But, Pres. Holbert added, the response from members in his stake and
other nearby stakes has been "gratifying and overwhelming."

The goal of the volunteers was to meet the needs of Church members, he
said, adding that the number of non-member households receiving help
probably exceeded the number of member households. And because of the
service rendered by Church members, Pres. Holbert expects missionary work
in the area to skyrocket, just as it did after Hurricane Erin.

For example, he explained, two of his neighbors who have not wanted to
hear the gospel are now interested in the Church because they saw members
come together to help the community.